Waterskiing and Wakeboarding

Water skiing

Water skiing is both a recreational activity and a competitive sport enjoyed by many throughout the UK. The majority of British Water Ski members do it for fun but also enjoy the many fitness benefits to come hand in hand with the sport. Water skiing typically begins with a deep water start, with the skier crouching down in the water. When the skier is ready, the driver accelerates the boat to pull the skier out of the water. There are various forms of the Water Skiing. Tournament – involving a combination of slaloms, tricks and jumping – is the classic form, but in recent years variations such as Kneeboard, Cable Wakeboard, Boat Wakeboard, Barefoot and the high-octane Ski Racing, at speeds of 200kmph, have evolved to cater for different tastes.

Wakeboarding

Wakeboarding emerged from a combination of water skiing and surfing in California and has changed the world of classic water skiing as fast as snowboarding did with snow skiing back in the mid 90’s. The roots of wakeboarding can be traced back to Australia in the early 80’s. From its primitive state here it was picked up by the Americans and was quickly developed in California into the sport we now know it to be today. Wakeboarding can be done either behind a boat or by being pulled along on a cable or winch. In contrast to water skiing, the idea of wakeboarding is to get airborne and perform tricks. When behind a boat this is done by riding at speed over the wake that is generated by the boat (thus the name wakeboarding). The difficulty of the expressiveness, creativity, aggressiveness and height of the jump are vital, at competition standard. However, don’t fear, wakeboarding can be done as a purely recreational activity. If you don’t live near the sea then there are many lakes located around the country where you can still do wakeboarding by being pulled along by a cable.